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13. Dictation was taken mostly from unseen passages, with somewhat varying results. Some classes including several of the lower ones did very well whereas some of the upper classes did badly. In Class II A for instance all boys had nine mistakes or more in a short passage of eight or ten lines. On the other hand Class III was good. Dictation was done by 39 boys of whom 23 had no mistakes, 12 one mistake, 2 two mistakes and 2 four mistakes. The only inference to be drawn is that in some classes unseen dictation is not practised to any extent, and that the boys are therefore unaccustomed to the sound of words they have not actually seen in print.
14. Composition.-Classes I to V were examined in this subject. Class VI had to reproduce a short story which was read out, and in Class VII the examination was confined to sentence building.
15. The essays with few exceptions were poor. In Class I some boys did well and some divisions of other classes did fairly well but the general result was disappointing. No actual instruction appears to have been given in this subject. Sentences began with the words And, Because, You see, Bat......; the spelling was faulty, very little attention was paid to punctuation, sentences were written down as they occurred to the writer, and but few showed any trace of well ordered thought. In Class III one of the essays written on the subject: "Is Exercise required to maintain bodily health?", contained the following statement: "If you want to get bodily health you must according to hygiene (by looking at "Strength and how to obtain it it only one shilling.)" Apart from the advice given as to the book to be bought the style is typical of many essays. They were very short consider ing the time allowed, especially so in the upper school where a large number of essays were only three-quarters of a page in length. In the lower school boys selected both subjects and wrote half a page on each. Many essays were written in the first person.
16. Individually Class I B did better than I A. One boy in A did very well indeed but the remainder did not shine. The essays in IB with but two exceptions were good in matter, style and spelling. No boy attempted the third subject.
17. Class II.
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The essays were all too short and all bordered between fair and poor. The spelling was bad and the word “etc." was constantly used. Expressions such as come to poverty were also frequent.
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18. Class III. The essays were fair only even in III A, and in III B and III C poor. In no case had the subject been thought out before the sentences were written down. Don't, can't, etc., were frequent, the spelling was poor and the style weak. Many boys spoke about Newspapers but never mentioned whether they were a benefit to the community or not. The essays were very short.
19. Class IV. The boys had no idea of the general rules of composition. Loose sentences were jumbled together, and new sentences began with But, Because, And; commas were apparently unknown. An idea of the style of the essays may be gathered from such sentences as: "very eagerly to build", "most useful than" and words such as "electric" for "electricity". Many boys attempted both essays, one boy going so far as to begin the second one "Is the Introduction of Railways into China desirable?" with the words: "Yes, Sir."
20. Class V. The essay consisted of a short letter to a friend. Those of V A were good for the most part but B, C, D and E had very poor ideas of letter writing. Letters began: "I am very sorry or very happy to inform you" and ended: "Your truly" or "your truly friend". Surely in a year the boys might have learnt how to begin and end a letter at least. Some letters consisted of three lines only.
21. Class VI. A short story was read out and the boys had to reproduce what they had heard. It was very well done, only one boy failed to understand what he had heard. One boy wrote down a story which had nothing whatever to do with the subject, he probably had not been attending and wrote out the only story he recollected in English.
22. Class VII. The sentence building was well done.